CSR

Our corporate responsibility is based on the cornerstones of our operations: increasing and securing the financial welfare of our customers and safeguarding against risks.

Mandatum Life has identified three main themes for its corporate responsibility: responsible investment, promoting responsible personnel practices in working life and implementing them in Mandatum Life’s own work community.

Responsible Investment: Money Is a Driver of Change

Investors have an influential role in solving societal challenges and mitigating climate change. The investment assets flowing into more responsible companies put these companies in a better position to succeed, while other companies feel the pressure to improve their ways of operating. Due to the rising cost of and limited access to financing, companies with less responsible operations have weaker long-term growth opportunities. This trend strengthens as investors are increasingly paying attention to sustainability issues.

In-House Investment Operations

Mandatum Life’s responsible investment strategy is to favor, for the long term, the best companies in each sector while taking into account the return expectation. Mandatum Life takes into account environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in its investment decisions. Mandatum Life’s Wealth Management signed the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI) in 2011. Mandatum Life is also a member of FINSIF (Finland's Sustainable Investment Forum). Investment operations linked to the management of customers’ wealth are implemented according to these principles. ESG issues have been incorporated into the investment process, backed by a dialogue with operators, companies and co-operation partners in the sector.

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Promoting Responsible Investing

One of Mandatum Life’s goals is to increase investors’ awareness of the opportunities offered by responsible investing and the risks of ignoring them. In September 2015, Mandatum Life Investment Services Ltd. joined the international Portfolio Decarbonization Coalition in order to reduce the carbon footprint of investments worldwide and to increase investors’ awareness and their opportunities to invest in companies with a smaller carbon footprint. In late 2016, the company joined the UN’s Montréal Pledge and will disclose the carbon footprint of its investments on an annual basis.

In the lead-up to the Paris Climate Change Conference in autumn 2015, Mandatum Life launched an annual seminar on responsible investment, which brings together opinion leaders in the sector from Finland and abroad to discuss the risks caused by climate change to investors. A total of around 150 opinion leaders from the business world and society participated in the event in 2015 and 2016. The speakers included institutional investors, major international asset management firms (Amundi, BlackRock) and international organizations, such as WWF and BSAG.

Measuring and Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Investments

Mandatum Life Investment Services Ltd. measures the carbon footprint of the unit-linked equity and fixed income investment baskets under its management and its full-mandate wealth management on an annual basis and publishes the results.

Mandatum Life created the Future Climate investment basket to offer its customers an effective means of cutting the carbon dioxide emissions of investments. The goal of ML Future Climate is to achieve the global general equity market return with a 50-per-cent smaller carbon footprint. The cuts in the carbon footprint have been made by excluding the largest polluters in each sector.

Collaboration with WWF Finland

We work together with WWF Finland to advance responsible investing and to mitigate climate change. We create measures and guidance on how investors can decrease the carbon dioxide emissions of their investments. This way, assets flow into companies that operate sustainably.

Social Responsibility: It All Comes Down to People

Mandatum Life ensures the financial security of its customers through voluntary risk insurance policies, by growing their wealth, securing entrepreneurship, supplementing pension cover and securing the competitiveness of Finnish companies. Well-managed business creates well-being in the society, while strengthening competitiveness.

Mandatum Life offers companies tools for good leadership and reward solutions, as well as a means of monitoring and assessing the employees’ impact on the company’s financial success and work satisfaction.

Efficient Rewards

Companies can improve their competitiveness through fair and effective personnel reward solutions. A successful reward system also helps the company stand out from the competition and attract new employees. Mandatum Life implements reward solutions aimed at the entire personnel and at selected personnel groups and helps companies in preparing for personnel risks. Mandatum Life also offers companies expert reward services ranging from designing reward systems to implementing and measuring them.

A good reward solution supports the strategy and business goals while motivating employees. It all starts with job grading, the determination of basic salary and the other components of pay in relation to roles and competitors, and with the setting of performance indicators. It also includes transparency and high-quality communication to personnel, which is paramount in order for the system to be perceived as fair. If rewards are not managed effectively they become nothing more than a significant cost item to the company. Efficient indicators are at the heart of an effective reward system. They guide employees to do the right things and increase the bottom line.

Fair rewards also play an important role in risk management. Unfair dispersion and disparity in pay within the organization may present a legal risk to the employer. Mandatum Life offers companies the Pay Scale tool to assess the organization’s pay structure, competitiveness and fairness.

Supplementing Pension Cover Increasingly Important

Mandatum Life increases Finns’ awareness and their possibilities to influence the sufficiency of their income during retirement. Earlier retirement could lead to insufficient pension cover for entrepreneurs, for example, if they have not prepared themselves. The most cost-effective way to save is through a group pension insurance policy provided by the employer. Pension cover that is supplemented by the employer guarantees a better income level during retirement and reduces the need for employees to prepare themselves. Maintaining employees’ work ability and well-being, ability to cope at work and motivation also require companies to make plans at an increasingly earlier stage.

Employers should prepare for the ageing and retirement of their personnel. A company can devise a pension strategy which creates models for ensuring the employees’ and management’s ability and willingness to work. A thoughtfully built model improves the company’s business through more productive careers and makes it a more responsible employer.

Taking Care of Employees’ Financial Security During and After Their Career

Mandatum Life offers companies assistance in managing the risks related to the health and work ability of their employees through personal insurance. Risks pertaining to health and work ability can occur throughout the lifecycle of an employment relationship, from recruitment to retirement. The insurance also secures the livelihood of the employee’s family if worse comes to worst.

A Growing Number of People Wish to Supplement Their Statutory Social Security

A growing number of Finns are concerned about their income in the face of financial adversity. According to the Insurance Survey series of the Federation of Finnish Financial Services, in 2016 only about a quarter of the respondents believed social security to be sufficient. According to the survey, a long-term illness, accidents, unemployment, temporary lay-offs and responsibility for taking care of a family member are considered to be the largest threats to financial welfare.

Mandatum Life’s risk insurance increases customers’ and their families’ financial security in case of serious illness, disability or death. The insurance helps to cover losses in income resulting from an illness. One out of five Finns falls seriously ill before the age of 65. In 2016 Mandatum Life commissioned a survey to determine what kind of risk takers Finns consider themselves to be, what risks they think about most and what they believe poses the biggest risks to their own finances. A total of 1,005 Finns aged between 15 and 79 responded to the survey.

When asked what kind of risks they think about most, 28 per cent of the respondents mentioned their own health. Finns also estimated their own serious illness to pose the biggest risk to their finances (28 per cent of all respondents). This was followed by the serious illness, death, accident or injury of their spouse (21 per cent). 15 per cent of all respondents cited a serious accident or injury that might happen to them, and 13 per cent mentioned their own or their spouse’s unemployment. According to Mandatum Life, Finns’ awareness of the risks related to their own finances should be further increased.

Providing Security to Entrepreneurs Fosters Entrepreneurship

Mandatum Life’s services for entrepreneurs secure the continuity of their business and supplement the statutory cover of the entrepreneurs and their families.

When faced with a serious illness or short period of disability, an entrepreneur might have to take care of securing the continuity of his or her business in addition to getting better. Thanks to the insurance, the entrepreneur can focus on recovering, while in cases of death or permanent disability the entrepreneur, his or her family or possible other owner will receive financial assistance during a difficult time.

Entrepreneurs must put more planning into preparing for their retirement and any health and financial problems. They pay their pension themselves through YEL insurance. Mandatum Life helps entrepreneurs to identify this security deficit and to solve it using a combination of YEL contributions and voluntary preparations according to their specific needs. The need for entrepreneurs to prepare themselves will further increase as a result of the Finnish pension reform that entered in force as of the beginning of 2017 and the insufficient preparedness for changes in ownership.

Responsibility for Personnel Ensures Successful Business

The well-being of personnel is one of Mandatum Life’s strategic targets. Mandatum Life has been selected as one of the best workplaces in Finland for eight consecutive years. The company’s HR policy is based on the belief that taking care of personnel ensures customer satisfaction and puts the company in an even better position to achieve success. Mandatum Life’s responsibility for its personnel also means providing security for employees and their families in case of financial risks. Mandatum Life also invests in a motivating work environment.

Mandatum Life influences the financial well-being of its employees by supplementing their pension cover and offering them smart ways to save and grow their wealth.

The benefits of group pension insurance for employees: supplementing pension insurance guarantees a better income level during retirement.

Comprehensive insurance has been taken out for the entire personnel, not only against work injuries, but also against off-working-hours injuries. This protects the employees and their families in the case of a permanent injury or death caused by an accident. In addition, a significant proportion of personnel has disability and life insurance.

A personnel fund enables employees long-term saving through professional investment activities. The personnel fund is an open, transparent and fair solution that aims at long-term benefits. The company encourages long-term saving by paying an additional 20 per cent bonus to employees who decide to fund their bonuses. A total of 88 per cent of personnel chose to do so in 2016.

Leading by Example: A Good Corporate Culture Based on Engagement, Trust and Good Leadership

At Mandatum Life, focusing on the corporate culture not only reflects the company’s values, but is also part of its business, as Mandatum Life offers employee reward solutions to its customers as well.
The future goal is to make even more effective use of employees’ competence and enthusiasm in developing Mandatum Life’s business. Leading by example is Mandatum Life’s vision for its responsibility in personnel matters, according to which the organizations that are able to make full use of their employees’ competence will be winners in the future. The flat hierarchy in the organization is also reflected in the results of the Great Place to Work survey: up to 88 per cent (90) of Mandatum Life employees feel that the management is easy to approach.

Mandatum Life monitors the employees’ perception of the achievement of equality. 92 per cent (89) of personnel feel that people are treated equally at Mandatum Life, regardless of gender.

In short

Almost 90% of the entire personnel decided to fund their bonuses in 2016.

88% of Mandatum Life employees feel that the management is easy to approach.

The company has been selected as one of the best workplaces in Finland for eight consecutive years (15th place in 2018).

Focus on the Well-Being of Personnel

Mandatum Life pays particular attention to the benefits linked to work ability management and employee well-being. These long-term efforts have paid off: the sick-leave rate has been kept low for years by investing regularly in both preventive occupational health care and work atmosphere and supervisory work.

The company offers comprehensive occupational health care services that include, among other things, consultations with a work psychologist, regular ergonomic visits to the workplace, specialist services and examinations related to women’s/men’s illnesses. Among the practices in place are support for returning to work following a long illness, and the preventive early intervention model. Co-operation with the occupational health care service provider is close.

Mandatum Life supports also various forms of physical exercise and different work patterns and practices that facilitate daily work by offering, for example, possibilities for remote work and free assistance in caring for a sick child for three weekdays.

Financial Responsibility: Continuity Is Being Secured in All Market Situations

Financial responsibility at Mandatum Life means ensuring the continuity, profitability, earnings power and solvency of operations in all market situations. Ensuring continuity creates the foundation for the sustainable and responsible management of customers’ insurance-related liabilities and customers’ investments and pensions over the decades. That is why risk management is a key component of Mandatum Life’s financial responsibility. The most important goals of the risk management process are to ensure the sufficiency of capital in relation to business risks and to curb variations in financial performance in the long run. Sufficient capitalization and well-functioning risk management processes safeguard the company’s ability to take care of its customers’ pensions and compensations, whatever the economic environment.

In 2017, Mandatum Life paid out a total of EUR 402 million in pensions to 66,000 pensioners. A total of approximately 50,000 other claims were also paid out. Responsibility towards shareholders is reflected in the company’s goal of ensuring a steady dividend stream.

Mandatum Life is a key societal employer and tax payer. The company employs more than 500 people in Finland and the Baltic countries. Mandatum Life has been one of Finland’s largest tax payers for many years. In 2015, Mandatum Life was the 48th largest corporate tax payer in Finland, paying more than EUR 9 million in taxes.

Mandatum Life also provides financial support for third-sector activities. In 2014, the company started co-operation with the Tukikummit foundation to prevent marginalization of youth at risk of exclusion. Mandatum Life participates by donating accident insurance policies to children whose families are in need. Since the start of the co-operation, more than 1,600 children have benefited from a donated accident insurance policy.

Environmental Responsibility is Based on Promoting Responsible Investment

Mandatum Life’s business operations do not give rise to significant direct emissions, which is why the company has identified the promotion of responsible investment as the best opportunity to engage in environmental responsibility. As a major investor, the company has a responsibility to contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of investments. Read more about our measures in the section ‘Responsible investment’.

The company strives to reduce the negative environmental impacts of its operations by, among other measures, developing its digital services and by reducing the use of paper in its customer communications. Mandatum Life uses the Baltic Sea -friendly DROPP spring water at its events and in its offices. The company favors locally produced food at its close to a hundred annual stakeholder events.

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